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This book addresses a vitally important topic of considerable interest to a broad group of readers.

—Dr. Mick Gowar, Anglia Ruskin University

All these contributors, like the editors themselves, are devoted to finding creative, accessible and usable digital platforms that not only close the distance between users, researchers and the tools used to archive oral literature, but also continue to connect, foster and sustain relationships with indigenous communities and those who try to access their rich and rapidly disappearing cultures. [...] This international and frank discussion enables us to deeply engage with the important issues that constantly surface in the field. [...] the authors' transparency and willingness to discuss their challenges provide readers with important insights into the imperfect but necessary efforts being made to preserve endangered oral literatures and protect intangible cultural heritage.

—Stacey Zembryzcki, Oral History, Autumn 2014

Thanks to ever-greater digital connectivity, interest in oral traditions has grown beyond that of researcher and research subject to include a widening pool of global users. When new publics consume, manipulate and connect with field recordings and digital cultural archives, their involvement raises important practical and ethical questions. This volume explores the political repercussions of studying marginalised languages; the role of online tools in ensuring responsible access to sensitive cultural materials; and ways of ensuring that when digital documents are created, they are not fossilized as a consequence of being archived. Fieldwork reports by linguists and anthropologists in three continents provide concrete examples of overcoming barriers—ethical, practical and conceptual—in digital documentation projects. Oral Literature in the Digital Age is an essential guide and handbook for ethnographers, field linguists, community activists, curators, archivists, librarians, and all who connect with indigenous communities in order to document and preserve oral traditions.

Claire Wheeler, previously a Research Assistant at the World Oral Literature Project, is now a Research Assistant at King's College, London. She has a background in Modern and Medieval Languages, educational publishing and teaching English as a foreign language.

Eleanor Wilkinson is a Research Assistant at the World Oral Literature Project. She has a background in ancient languages and culture, and has previously worked as a freelance collections assistant after completing her MA in Museum Studies.Felix K. Amekais a Professor of African linguistics at Leiden University.

Judith Astonis a Senior Lecturer in Film-making and Creative Media at UWE Bristol, and a co-director of i-Docs.

Margaret Field is Professor of American Indian Studies at San Diego State University

Paul Matthewsis currently Senior Lecturer within the Department of Computer Science and Creative Technologies at the University of the West of England.

Daniela Merolla is a Lecturer of African Literatures and Media at the Department of African Languages and Cultures at Leiden University.

Mingzhu Ha is, at present, a student at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh.

Mingzong Ha, under the University of Cambridge, ran a project on the oral history tradition in the Qinghai and Gansu provinces in China.

David Nathan previously held under a position at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, and is now the Director of the Endangered Languages Archive under the Endangered Languages Project. Thomas Widlokis a Professor of African Studies at the University of Cologne.

Jorge Gómez Rendón is a Lecturer of the Department of Literature at Andean University and an Associate Professor of the Department of Linguistics and Communication at the Catholic University of Ecuador, Quito. Additionally, he is also an Associate Researcher to the Amsterdam Centre for Language and Communication in the Department of Theoretical Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam.

The articles in this book are licensed under a Creative Commons
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information: Mark Turin, Claire Wheeler, Eleanor Wilkinson, Oral Literature in the Digital Age: Archiving Orality and Connecting with Communities. UK: Open Book Publishers, 2013, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0032
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